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Alexander Wallner, CEO of plusserver, believes the importance of the sovereign cloud services and solutions needed to ensure that data is protected, safe, and compliant cannot be overemphasized. He is also quick to point out that plusserver takes responsibility for the cloud-based operations of its growing customer base, which includes enterprises across industries and throughout Germany’s public and private sectors.

“Our customers, especially public institutions and leaders in industries like healthcare and financial services, have high data security and sovereignty requirements that must be met,” says Wallner. “We enable them to benefit from a robust, high-performance IT foundation – one that combines our sovereign cloud offerings with those from the major hyperscalers – to create a true managed multi-cloud platform so they can focus their time and effort on growing their businesses, not building and managing the IT infrastructure they need to accomplish their goals. At plusserver, we believe that data sovereignty is crucial for enabling digital growth and that digital growth in turn is synonymous with business growth.”

With four advanced data centers in Germany, including two facilities in Hamburg and ones in Cologne and Dusseldorf, as well as a cadre of seasoned cloud experts who are fully-vetted German nationals – plusserver offers a wide range of solutions that meet or exceed myriad certifications, including BSI C5, ISO 9001, IDW PH 9.860.1, ISO 27001, and of course the classic data protection requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation. The company’s extensive portfolio of sovereign cloud solutions addresses the needs of customers at every point in their cloud journey, whether it’s first migrating to the cloud or the development of advanced cloud-native applications.

The company also offers a number of complimentary services, including ones for data management, data lifecycle management, and security and storage. In addition, plusserver’s high-performance cloud setups and deployments ensure that customers can consume all services without restrictions or performance degradation even during peak times.

“Our company is viewed as a companion by our customers on their way to the cloud, and once there, in initiatives that realize its full potential,” he adds. “For many, this leads to pluscloud, our sovereign cloud based on trusted and proven VMware technology that features consumption-based billing and free traffic for planning and cost transparency. Now, as a result of earning the VMware Sovereign Cloud distinction, customers can enjoy even greater peace of mind and confidence in our ability to support them at every stage in their unique cloud journey.”

Notably, plusserver is a founding member of Gaia-X. The company also recently commissioned a study with IDC titled “Data Sovereignty in the Cloud – Requirements, Potential and Challenges,” to learn more about the specific needs of both public and private-sector enterprises in Germany.

The survey found that cloud computing is the most important modernization factor for IT, and that cloud services will increasingly replace legacy IT over the next two years, with 61% of companies also planning to use cloud services even more intensively in the medium and long-term because of increased cybersecurity requirements and new standards.

In addition, 82% of respondents in companies with more than 1,000 employees rated data sovereignty as very important or important. Even so, only 11% of German companies were found to have implemented data sovereignty plans or to have a strategy in place for the sovereign handling of data.

This will be important if organizations are to meet what Wallner sees as increasingly imperative requirements. These include knowing where important data resides and who has access to it, retaining the ability to quickly change service providers and avoid vendor lock-in, and enjoying the freedom to innovate that robust sovereign cloud platforms deliver.

“Clearly the market for sovereign cloud solutions will only increase as organizations in Germany take steps to address data sovereignty – an issue that is overwhelmingly acknowledged as being very important,” Wallner says. “At plusserver, our staff is well trained, highly experienced and ideally qualified to help enterprises address this reality. Importantly, our product portfolio is highly standardized for smooth and fast delivery, but we also have the proven ability to develop highly bespoke applications and solutions that surpass the most stringent data protection requirements. Data security, compliance, and data sovereignty are in plusserver’s DNA.”   

Learn more about plusserver and its partnership with VMware here. IT teams can also download a complimentary data sovereignty summary and decision matrix.

Cloud Computing, IT Leadership

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

The German government has announced plans to make it easier for IT workers from India to obtain work visas in Germany.

While visiting Bengaluru, the center of India’s tech sector, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a televised press conference Sunday with the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, where he said Germany not only wants to be able to recruit and attract skilled Indian workers but work with India on the research and development of IT and software.

“We want to simplify the issuing of visas,” Scholz said. “We intend to modernize the whole bureaucratic process in addition to legal modernization.” He noted that Germany needs many skilled workers to meet the country’s demand for software development.

“A lot of reform proposals have already been collected and we are continuing to work on them,” Scholz said.

Under the plans, the new visa would make it easier for skilled workers to come to Germany with their families, while a relaxing of language requirements would also help to make Germany a more attractive destination for sought-after professionals.

“It is clear that anyone who comes to Germany as an IT specialist can first easily converse with all his or her colleagues in English, because many in Germany can speak English,” Scholz said.

Despite many big tech companies laying off large numbers of employees in recent months, the global demand for skilled tech workers remains high. According to a study by management consulting firm Korn Ferry, by 2030 there will be a projected global human talent shortage of 85 million people.

“In tech alone, the US could lose out on $162 billion worth of revenues annually unless it finds more high-tech workers,” according to the report. “India could become the next tech leader; the study suggest that the country could have a surplus of more than 1 million high-skilled tech workers by 2030.”

Commenting on research undertaken by the firm, Yannick Binvel, president of Korn Ferry’s Global Industrial Markets practice, wrote in the report that “Governments and organizations must make talent strategy a key priority and take steps now to educate, train, and upskill their existing workforces.”

Germany is not the only country looking to attract skilled workers to tackle the growing skills gap.

In the US, the H1-B visa allows companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. However, the visa has not always been supported across the political spectrum. During his presidency, Donald Trump stopped the distribution of new H1-B visas and attempted to raise employer compliance obligations and reduce H-1B visa validity for workers employed at third-party job sites.

All of these proposals were ultimately overturned by current US President Joe Biden early in his first term.

Government, IT Jobs, Legal, Technology Industry

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Germany’s bustling port city of Hamburg has long been known as one of Europe’s premier cultural destinations, the birthplace of composers Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, the inspiration behind designers Karl Lagerfeld and Jil Sander, the spot where the Beatles traveled to receive their seasoning, as well as their signature haircuts.

But during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the artists contributing to Hamburg’s identity found themselves anxious about maintaining their followings, as well as their livelihoods.

Aware of the important role culture plays during times of emergency, the German Federal Government assigned the digital innovation lab at the Hamburg Ministry of Finance the task of developing a short-term financial aid platform for artists around the country.

“The special fund for cultural events is the largest cultural funding program since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany,” said Olaf Scholz, the federal government’s Minister of Finance at the time and the current chancellor.

No time to spare

As the Culture COVID-19 Aid Application Platform was evolving, its developers realized that this example of e-governance would be different from what had come before.

Previously, these types of funds were implemented separately in each of the country’s 16 länder – or federal states. In some cases, the system was partially digitized. In other instances, old-fashioned, paper methods were still being used. Either way, the process was a long one.

With the virus spreading, along with financial panic, organizers understood that there was no time to spare.

That meant that paper could no longer be part of the structure. Everything would have to be digitally designed.

And not only would developers have to come up with and implement an end-to-end solution – starting with the initial aid application and concluding with the final payment – the entire platform needed to be launched within three weeks.

A step for social cohesion

The Hamburg Ministry of Finance was no stranger to taking on ambitious projects. The land employs more than 70,000 people and administers services to a population of more than 1.9 million.

But COVID-19 was different from the challenges of the past. Thousands of aid applications would have to be quickly processed with a limited workforce.

Fortunately, technology had advanced to the point that the 2.5 billion euros in payments could now be integrated via the cloud.  For 20 years, the Ministry of Finance had had a relationship with enterprise resource planning software leader SAP and would come to rely on the company to design the platform’s overall architecture.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated features would be used to compensate for the fact that there were fewer workers involved in the process.

Designers were also given the flexibility to incorporate third-party technologies – all of which could be integrated through SAP’s Business Technology Platform (BTP).

The cloud-based system would consider the application requirements unique to each of Germany’s 16 länder and prevent fraud by validating all submitted data.

Through it all, the human beings involved in the Culture COVID-19 Aid Application Platform never lost sight of the end goal. As Scholz pointed out at the time, “Art and culture are of great importance for our community and for social cohesion.”

Enriching the present and the future

The platform was deployed in June 2021, meeting the three-week goal initially set.

Some 160,000 documents were evaluated and classified through AI, while more than 1 million potential cultural activities were registered on the platform.

In addition to diminishing the individual artists’ financial concerns, very quickly, reduced-capacity events were being held all over the country – with changing COVID protocols automatically factored into the planning.

For continuing to provide a pandemic-weary public with music, art, cinema, theater, and other cultural enrichment, the Hamburg Ministry of Finance was designated a 2022 SAP Innovation Awards finalist – part of an annual event honoring organizations utilizing SAP technologies to make a difference.

You can learn more about what the Ministry accomplished and how they did it by viewing their Innovation Awards pitch deck.

Digital Transformation